Seb
I have no idea what you IQ might be, but I have a feeling that you have about 20 points on many of us.
As for your stock, I see nothing that would render the first one illegal. Sure, that old thing of guiding means comes up, but that is easy to check. Just have the shooter sit down at the bench and shoot a group, without looking through the scope after the first shot.
As for the barrel block on that one example, I see it as possibly violating the rules concering barrel blocks, sleeves fixtures, attachments, etc, as described in the rule book. There are a few examples of these being shot, and trust me, everyone will humor the builder, and say how neat it is, untill they actaully win something, as in a Region Level Championship. That is not the time to find out that what has been created is not within the rules.
Of course, you could always call it a "tuner".
I get tired of shooters always bringing up this old crap of how Benchrest is stifling creativity. Our antiquated rules??. That is a bunch of BS. Heck, just look at what we are using now, whether it be a Robertson BRX or a Scoville. These are way out on the fringe as to what the old puritist would describe as a 'Rifle Stock".
This arguement has been going on for decades. I have mentioned before that I have an article from the 1971 addition of the Shooters Digest. It has an article about "these new fangled Benchrest Rifles that defy tradition". One of the chief culprits in promoting this heresy is none other than a young shooter named Ed Shilen. The cry then was, "we need to draw a line in the sand, NOW". They might have drawn a line, but we keep moving it.
While I do not disagree with Wilbur very often, I would see your design as meeting muster. As I said, it is quite easy to determine if a design incorporates a true return to battery feature. The key phrase in that rule is the part that refers to not having to optically re-aim the Rifle after each shot. Your design looks good, but I doubt you could sit down and fire a competitive 5-shot group without having to re-aim after each shot.
But then, he is a Region Director. All I am is a shooter who likes to talk a lot.........jackie
